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Dream Theater - SCORE

Contrallion

Posted 30 August 2006 - 03:20 AM

Contrallion

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Dream Theater's Octavarium tour finale DVD came out in America today (after strangely being out in South America for a while). The second set of the performance included an orchestra. I personally thought Dream Theater's sound was great- James LaBrie's voice on many songs rivaled the studio recordings, and Octavarium (the song) was fucking incredible. The orchestra was really mediocre- I think Rudess does a better orchestral job on his keyboard than 20+ musicians with actual instruments.

Has anyone else bought it? If TubularLuggage hasn't seen it yet, then I pwn his DT-fan status.

Hm.. I say the only thing changing with Dream Theater is that they're trying slightly to become more mainstream. Which I'm not saying is a "sell-out" thing. It's a great thing. Metal bands are becomming mainstream now, and bands like System of a Down took hard rock and made it popular. So if Dream Theater now gets popular in a way that gives it airtime on radios and that kind of thing... it could potentially mean that the public is introduced to talent again. Which would be awesome. So I support the new direction Dream Theater is taking. They still pwn hard as ever.

Contrallion

Posted 30 August 2006 - 02:25 PM

Contrallion

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I've never heard them on the radio, but I can't really say anything since I hardly listen to radio at all. A few songs off of Octavarium are definitely radio-friendly, though. Do any stations around you play them?

I've never heard them on the radio, but I can't really say anything since I hardly listen to radio at all. A few songs off of Octavarium are definitely radio-friendly, though. Do any stations around you play them?

I heard them once on one of those XFM radio stations. That was interesting... but in terms of FM stations, it may be a while... but hopefully soon.

TubularLuggage

Posted 30 August 2006 - 03:36 PM

TubularLuggage

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QUOTE (Contrallion @ Aug 30 2006, 05:20 AM)

Dream Theater's Octavarium tour finale DVD came out in America today (after strangely being out in South America for a while). The second set of the performance included an orchestra. I personally thought Dream Theater's sound was great- James LaBrie's voice on many songs rivaled the studio recordings, and Octavarium (the song) was fucking incredible. The orchestra was really mediocre- I think Rudess does a better orchestral job on his keyboard than 20+ musicians with actual instruments.

Has anyone else bought it? If TubularLuggage hasn't seen it yet, then I pwn his DT-fan status.

lol, yes, I have seen Score. It's a fucking amazing DVD set, and each member of the band has an absolutely incredible performance, even by their standards. Yeah, the orchestra does sound a bit off at points, especially at points during the overture. Ruddess pwnd them pretty good. I'm also glad James didn't start weak like at the Budokan show. I'm also glad they played what's possibly my favorite song, Under A Glass Moon.
I also really liked the documentary on their history as a band.

No, their worst album by far is Falling Into Infinity, and Mike Portnoy actually apologized for parts of that album. Basically with FII, their label wouldn't let them release what they wanted to (SFAM) and wouldn't drop them to let them go elsewhere, until they recorded an album with more 'commercially friendly' material. Scenes was probably their best album to date. Six Degrees, which was after Scenes, was great with only a few weak moments (lyrics and voiceovers on The Great Debate for example). Octavarium was a concept album, focusing on an octive (each song starts one key up from the last, with the pre-song negative time stuff being black keys on a piano, and songs being white keys). Train Of Thought was good, but some didn't like it because of the direction. I just didn't like LaBrie's rapping. They haven't "gone downhill", they simply don't want to remake the same album each time. [/rant]

QUOTE (Contrallion @ Aug 30 2006, 03:14 PM)

If you think that Falling into Infinity is better than Scenes from a Memory, then something's wrong.

Contrallion

Posted 30 August 2006 - 04:01 PM

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The violins in the orchestra were especially bad. They seemed out of tune for almost the entire time they were playing. The orchestra had a place in the music (unlike Metallica's S&M shitfest), since the original recordings have orchestral parts in them. A better orchestra, with more rehearsal time, would have been much better.

QUOTE (TubularLuggage @ Aug 30 2006, 03:36 PM)

No, their worst album by far is Falling Into Infinity, and Mike Portnoy actually apologized for parts of that album. Basically with FII, their label wouldn't let them release what they wanted to (SFAM) and wouldn't drop them to let them go elsewhere, until they recorded an album with more 'commercially friendly' material.

Here's Mike Portnoy's explanation off of Disc 2:

You know, it was frustrating and we were feeling a lot of turmoil within the band. I did not want to compromise. I wanted to stick to our guns and continue with the 12-minute songs. Some of the other guys were feeling the frustration and the temptation from the industry to maybe try things their way. And I had had enough. I said “Fuck this. This is no longer about the music, this is about the business and the industry and this isn’t fun anymore.” And I told the guys I wanted to leave towards the end of that tour......We sat down and talked with them, and I told them my frustrations and I had had enough and basically laid down the law. I said “If this band is gonna stay together, the label has to stay the fuck out of our music. We don’t want to work with outside producers anymore. No outside writers. The label will hear the album when it’s finished. We’re not going to them for permission on what is a hit single. If this band is gonna stay together, if this band is gonna survive, everybody get out of our way, book the studio time and let us make our fucking record.”

You know, it was frustrating and we were feeling a lot of turmoil within the band. I did not want to compromise. I wanted to stick to our guns and continue with the 12-minute songs. Some of the other guys were feeling the frustration and the temptation from the industry to maybe try things their way. And I had had enough. I said “Fuck this. This is no longer about the music, this is about the business and the industry and this isn’t fun anymore.” And I told the guys I wanted to leave towards the end of that tour......We sat down and talked with them, and I told them my frustrations and I had had enough and basically laid down the law. I said “If this band is gonna stay together, the label has to stay the fuck out of our music. We don’t want to work with outside producers anymore. No outside writers. The label will hear the album when it’s finished. We’re not going to them for permission on what is a hit single. If this band is gonna stay together, if this band is gonna survive, everybody get out of our way, book the studio time and let us make our fucking record.”

Yeah, from that, and numerous other accounts, it's easy to see that Mike was by far the least satisfied member with this album.

some internet person

Posted 01 September 2006 - 10:51 PM

TubularLuggage

Posted 02 September 2006 - 11:29 AM

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As long as we're talking about their 20th anniversary, I think this has to be posted. It's back when they were still Majesty, playing in Portnoy's basement, with Dominici on vocals.Not too bad considering it's 20 years ago (well, 19) with mediocre equipment in MP's basement.

Contrallion

Posted 02 September 2006 - 01:26 PM

Contrallion

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QUOTE (TubularLuggage @ Sep 2 2006, 11:29 AM)

As long as we're talking about their 20th anniversary, I think this has to be posted. It's back when they were still Majesty, playing in Portnoy's basement, with Dominici on vocals.Not too bad considering it's 20 years ago (well, 19) with mediocre equipment in MP's basement.